Lychee Nut
by Fire-star-1516
Summary: I noticed everyone seemed to have a proper(Well mostly anyway) origin story except Tai Lung so I decided to write this R/R please. Tigress' chapter is up!
1. Lychee Nut: The beginning

I noticed everyone seemed to have a proper origin story except Tai Lung so I decided to write this R/R please  
Disclaimer: Nope Not mine :( but the story is :)

Lychee Nut  
Deep in the mountains was a place everyone called the Cannibal zone but its inhabitants called nature.

A small rabbit hopped cautiously through the thick snow carrying a thin bushel of grass between his white paws. He was just a little ways from his burrow where his wife and five children eagerly awaited his arrival. The air was still and the only sound was the quiet rustling of leaves.  
The rabbit quickened his pace, the faster he returned to his family the better, food had been scarce for weeks and the grass would quiet their stomachs at least for the night.  
Soon the opening of his burrow was in view, a small hole surrounded by newly fallen snow, when he was a few steps from his home a blood curdling screech tore through the forest.  
The rabbit froze, sniffing the air fearfully, that sound was like no other he had heard, seconds ticked by but the noise didn't return, letting out a sigh of relief the rabbit continued his short journey to his burrow and then the world turned white.

"Ming please" A snow leopard pleaded plugging his ears "You'll wake the dead"  
A much smaller and likely younger Snow leopardess lie on a mat screaming bloody Mary "Come closer Fang I'll show you_ dead_!"  
"Mrs. Ming You must not move! " A Tigress Midwife warned.  
Ming seemed to calm down for the time being but in reality she was plotting.

_If there's more than one cub I'm getting rid of it of course, but how?_ Her thoughts were quickly interrupted by another contraction "I never wanted any cubs!" She whined attempting to roll onto her side only to be stopped by her midwife.  
"Mrs. Ming, stay_** still**_".  
Angrily the snow leopard went back to swiping at her husband cursing his existence.

Awhile later one very large cub had been birthed and the midwife was now tasked with the challenge of retrieving another cub who had seemed to be stuck for the last thirty minutes.  
"Mrs Ming you need to_ push!"_ The Tigress said frantically, beginning to worry for the cubs well being.

"I am pushing." Ming groaned wondering how long a cub could possibly go without air, she'd give it another five minutes.  
Fang, who had retreated to the other side of the room with the first cub after his wife's claw had gotten to close for comfort, waited excitedly for his other child he was hoping for another boy then he'd have two heirs, oh joy! But it was taking a rather long time and they hadn't even named the first cub, for now Fang was calling him hefty for his weight.

After Ming felt a sufficient amount of time had passed she complied with her Midwife's pleadings and the second cub was born, a girl (much to Fang's disappointment) who was about the size of a small potato, but a problem had presented itself she wasn't, moving Fang's heart dropped and Ming's soared and she silently rejoiced, there wasn't enough food to go around as it was no need for excess mouths, and watched as her husband rushed to the Tigress's side staring worriedly at the cub "Will she be okay? "

At that question Ming wondered not for the first time in her life why her parents had chosen _him_ of all animals to be her mate.  
The midwife sighed, shaking her head grimly "No Mr. Fang I'm afraid she died some point in the pregnancy. "

Fang dropped his head sadly.  
After the midwife had left with the Second cub in tow  
Ming began to feel disappointed she had thought she'd killed the cub not her body, Fang mistaking her somber state for something else entirely quickly placed the cub in her arms and patted her shoulder comfortingly "Its okay dear we still have one beautiful cub"

Ming looked the cub and turned up her nose "Ugh, he looks just like_ you_"  
"you really think so?" Fang asked, looking flattered and obviously not catching his wife's insult "I think he has your jaw tho"  
His mate rolled her eyes, pushing the cub to the side.  
"Oh Ming!" Fang cried suddenly "I almost forgot we need to name him "  
Ming looked at him with contempt "Of **course** you did" sighing she looked over the cub once more, his fur stuck up in various directions covering his round body like protective spikes and he had an absurdly red nose, "we're naming him Lychee nut" she told her husband finally.

"Lychee nut?" Fang asked confusedly, he never heard of naming one's child after a fruit or any type of food item for that matter but his wife had a look on her face one that over the years he had learned to avoid and now that she could move freely...  
"What a wonderful name!" He declared nervously  
Ming grinned sardonically, stretching her arms above her head lazily, she always got her way.

In eight short weeks Lychee had grown a considerable amount and was nearly the size of his cousins who where three wet seasons old, but alas yet another problem had arised.  
"I want food!" Ming bellowed into the halls scaring away several of the maids  
"Dear" Fang started calmly "All the animals seem to have perished in the avalanche, there is no food"  
Ming growled quietly then looked fleetingly at Lychee who lay in her arms batting his paws in his sleep "What about him?"

Fang nodded grimly "I know we'll have to get more food for his sake"  
Ming blinked quickly, she didn't care about the cub eating she wanted to eat him, but she didn't dare tell Fang that "What about the Valley," she suggested dully "they have plenty of fat animals down there"  
"True " her husband agreed "but you know they don't believe in eating meat"  
Ming shrugged nonchalantly, who cared what they believed she was hungry and they had food, lots of it, and she opened her mouth to tell Fang just that but he rambled on.  
"But we could go to buy other food items I hear they have wonderful noodles" Fang stated cheerfully "Ming go and get anything left in the pantry we'll be leaving soon"

* * *

"You know he shouldn't eat that yet"

Ming shrugged ignoring her husbands warning and pushing a mushy glob of chewed meat into her cub's mouth "it wont hurt him and we have to get rid of it at some point anyway" The snow leopardess was correct the village was coming into view, and it was unlikely they would take lightly to a small satchel of goat and crane meat.  
When they found their way to the market Ming was in awe.  
"Okay we're gonna get some dry food something that will last awhile" Fang began thoughtfully "Then we can go and get something sweet Ming okay- Ming?"

Ming raced through the village, pushing through the hoards of animals, Lychee swinging precariously in his basket, the buzzing of their loud chatter rang wonderfully in her sensitive ears, their scents tingled her nose delightfully and her stomach rumbled loudly if only she could grab just one, a small goat no one would notice, but with Lychee weighing her down it would be near impossible to snatch one without being caught, so she continued running through the streets aimlessly until she met a rather hard ornate rock.  
Lychee cried out in shock or maybe it pain but Ming didn't care know which.  
The rock turned slowly around.  
Wow She didn't know the valley had moving rocks, oh wait it wasn't a rock, it was a giant tortoise? Ming having lived in the mountains all her life had never seen just an animal and stared in shock even Lychee who had been formerly shrieking quieted.  
"Oh dear, pardon me" said the Tortoise who Ming found quite creepy "Is your baby okay?"  
The snow leopardess nodded not bothering to actually check on her cub.  
The creepy tortoise also nodded slowly before speaking again " What brings you to the valley?"

How did the creepy tortoise now she didn't live here "umm I'm waiting for my husband? "  
The tortoise nodded once again and turned to face a set of huge stairs that shockingly Ming hadn't noticed before "Well I must be getting back to the palace have a good day"  
And painstakingly he started up the steps The snow leopardess wondered silently how long it would take him to get up the stairs and why he would even go down them in the first place, surprisingly the tortoise made good pace and within fifteen he was out of her sight.  
Ming looked tiredly towards the market, Fang was probably getting nasty dried food from goats and pigs who should be on their dinner Table. Taking a seat on the bottom step she watched as the crowd of animals thinned under the darkening sky, Lychee whined, sadly gumming his blanket.  
"I know Lychee I think we should eat then too" his mother consoled "Blame your father"  
The cub snorted, in what Ming assumed was agreement maybe he wasn't so bad after all but if Fang didn't get some proper food something ugly was going to happen.

The sky was black by the time Fang rushed up to them panting loudly "Ming! I found you"

Ming sighed deeply regarding her husband's current condition with disdain (check)"did you get food or what?" she asked  
The snow leopard shook his head "They wouldn't sell apparently there's a famine here too"  
"But we saw crop" Ming reminded him frowning  
"Maybe they where fake crops" Fang suggested smartly.  
His wife cupped her face "Regardless, even if they were fake we don't have any food Fang"  
The snow leopard nodded sadly "I know but what do we do?"  
Ming grew silent looking back up the stairs and began to think,  
eating Lychee wouldn't sit well with Fang or their family's neither would letting him die a slow death but perhaps conveniently losing him would slide by much easier now She just needed to convince Fang "You now" she started making sure she had his attention "there's a palace up there."  
Her husband glanced at the stairs "Oh, what does it do?"  
"It watches children," Ming told him cheerfully, waiting for him to catch on but Fang continued watching her expectantly "They can watch Lychee for a little while until we find food."  
Finally the snow leopard seemed to understand "But, is that a good idea?"  
Ming sighed frustratingly, her parents just had to stick her with him "Yes it is a good idea, they'll clothe him, feed him whatever and then we can come to get him later "  
This seemed to soothe Fang considerably "Oh, I see."  
"Now I'll just give him to the cree-caretaker" Ming said carefully, climbing up the stairs  
"Should I go with you?" Fang wondered  
"No!" The snow leopardess yelled "I mean it will be better if I go alone" she added quickly at her husband's startled expression before continuing up the stairs that seemed to never end, but really how hard could it be.

Okay she now excused her husbands former state, by the time she reached the top of the stairs she could barely breathe, what type of sadistic animal would make these things? Lychee who had to do know work whatsoever found her suffering amusing and giggled madly (well as madly as a baby could)"Hush...you..little imp" she managed, as she plopped the basket down in front of a large door and stumbled back towards the stair case briefly she thought of leaving a note with his name and age, but she didn't have a quill or paper and she sure wasn't going back down to get one and come back up, let the creepy tortoise figure it out by himself.  
With one last look at the basket she started back down the steps that would serve nicely as a torture device.

Lychee lay patiently in his basket waiting for something to happen any moment now the caretaker his mother spoke of would arrive and feed him.  
A tan moth landed on his nose crawled quickly around his face muttering to herself about hopeless litter before flying off, hmm what odd creatures lived in this strange land but alas any moment his caretaker would come, just a little bit longer.  
Lychee chattered to himself happily(as he had no one else to talk to) about a host of things, his day, his parents, the hunger pains that where quickly growing in his belly, his late caretaker, his extremely comfy basket which was lined with rabbit fur (Of the highest quality of course)and how freakishly huge the door seemed, among other things.  
After about a hour of this one sided conversation a small figure appeared in the door way and Lychee looked curiously at the red panda who stared back at him shock.  
Lychee gurgled excitedly, now he had someone to talk to and he began to recount the events that lead to his arrival.  
The red panda hurriedly carried him inside taking him down some halls, which Lychee noted where also freakishly high, and to a room where the wrinkly tortoise his mother ran into earlier sat seemingly asleep.  
The red Panda said some things most of which Lychee didn't understand and the tortoise woke up and seemed pleased with the sight of him something The snow leopard cub took to mean he should start talking Again. During his story the Red panda and the Tortoise seemed to choose a name and an age for him, even tho the cub had made a point of interrupting his tale to tell them his own, then Lychee suddenly became two, for the life of him Lychee couldn't figure out how, and was called Tai Lung (Admittedly He liked that name a lot better than his first).

Hurrah you have reached the end of Lychee nut.. now I think we all know Tai Lung's name wasn't always well Tai lung so I decided Lychee nut would do well in this story.

In my fanon He actually looks more like his mother than his father (Ming was talking about his shape) and I just realized I accidently made it so all three of three names end with G hmmm interesting.

It's a crazy story I know, but please leave a review :) and should I do one for Tigress or no?


	2. Chapter 2

One door closes another one opens.

Song pranced cheerfully to the table where her cub moped and placed a large bowl of green limp leaves on it's surface.  
The cub heaved a sigh.  
"What's wrong Mei?" The Tigress asked worriedly.  
Mei, who was only about four dry seasons old, flopped back in her chair and looked at her mother seriously "Mother, I'm tired of cabbage."  
"I'm sorry Mei but It's all we can afford after your dad left" Song reminded her cub sadly.  
Mei stared at her mother in confusion, being a very young cub she couldn't completely comprehend what her mother was telling her, sure her father was gone, her mother didn't have a job and had to take care of both her and her grandfather but what did that have to do with affording food? Mei had no idea, but she wasn't one to pry so she shrugged and painfully ate the boiled cabbage trying not to gag.

"Mother perhaps you should fry the cabbage next time," She suggested as her mother collected the bowls and prepared another for her Grandfather. "They would taste better."  
"Well, yes Mei I'm sure they would" Song concurred "But oil is expensive now in days and we cant afford to waste any"  
Mei sighed again, standing from her chair, there her mother went with what they couldn't afford, but what about what they could afford? What about that? "I'm going outside mother."

Mei's village was small and crowded,there never seemd to enough homes for everybody food was scarce and none of the children liked to play. But if there was one good thing about her village it was the fact they never ran out of water, in fact they provided most of the water to the surrounding villages. That was the one thing Mei was proud of about her home and on her days out she would spend a great about of time there, watching the clear liquid flow through the many vessels that ran on either side of it.  
But today Mei felt like doing something different, something that unknownst to her would change her life completely.  
Mei went to the market.  
The market was equally as crowded as the town but it had a sense of excitement to it the constant chattering of animals haggling for a better price on trivial items and the clicking of travelers wheel burrows on the stone road all seemed interesting and fun to the cub.  
She squeezed behind a wooden crate watching the commotion from a far, she enjoyed observing the chaos but she had no want to be apart of it.  
Over the course of her observance she saw many things some of which made her laugh and things which made her blood boil, two goats rushing around the village screaming about the end of world, which made her giggle quietly, an older pallas get being shoved to the ground by a large tiger, which made her wish she was able to help, finally the sky began to grow dark but strangely it wasn't the usual red and violet instead a light green sheen and huge dark clouds painted the sky.  
Hmm, she'd never seen that before.  
She stood watching for a while as the clouds moved slowly around the sky wondering to herself what type of weather they would bring, was it rain, snow or maybe even hail? She was snapped out her reverie when a horde of animals rushed past her, looking significantly more wired than usual.  
Well whatever the clouds where bringing it must be bad, taking one last look at the sky she stepped out into the crowd, struggling not to fall behind on her short legs.  
By the time she neared her village the wind was howling in her ears and slammed into her rack almost knocking Mei off her feet, she had separated from the crowd at some point in the market feeling it would be much safer and less likely for her to become trampled by the frenzied animals  
Now she was beginning to wonder if that was a mistake.  
As Mei stumbled through the town trying to remember which of the many paths lead to her hut, she was completely alone, the once overpopulated village now seemed devoid of all life.  
The wind blew harder, finally knocking her off her feet and flinging her across the dirt road and under an anchored stone bench slamming her head against one of its legs.  
She laid dizzily on her back, fighting to stay conscious.  
The last thing she saw before passing out, was goat who flew through the air like a wingless bird.

When Mei awoke the bench was still firmly rooted in its place her head was pounding and the world had gone silent. Something was wrong.  
Slowly and painfully she rolled from under the bench and onto her feet, something was very wrong. The place which she had called home was gone, jagged pieces of wood lay scattered over the ground every single, path had disappeared underneath, what looked to be half a forest of trees and bushes.  
Mei glanced around fearfully looking for someone, anybody who could explain how this happened or least where her mother was, but she could find none.  
She stood staring vacantly at her destroyed home for what could have been seconds, minutes or even hours.  
Suddenly she felt her feet moving and before she knew it she was running full speed through the market, following the wide waterway that ran through it.  
Mei had no clue where she would go she just knew she had to go somewhere.  
So she ran, ignoring the burning that welled up in her chest.  
After a while she found herself in a thick forest then something caught her eyes-well actually her ear, the familiar sound of a bustling town rang out from the other side of the copse.  
Carefully she pulled two branches to the side and peeked ahead, sure enough a small village , bigger than her's but sill small, lay nicely in front of her, animals plodded around, buying goods and loading them into burrows, just like home...  
Tentatively she placed her left foot on the road then slowly plopped her other down.  
And quickly merged into the early morning crowd.  
Some animals gave her odd looks, something she didn't quite understand but she continued on none the less, if she stopped now Mei didn't know if she start again, she was still so confused and frightened, would she ever see her mother and grandpa again? And what about her village could it be fixed.  
Someone here can help me. She assured herself, feeling her spirits lift she speed through the market shrugging off the looks of confusion from the villagers that turned to stares of fear, she wouldn't let them faze no one would, well expect the huge thing she just slammed into  
"OW!"she cried in pain "WATCH IT!-oh..."  
A giant turtle, not it was tortoise, stood in front of her smiling kindly "Well, hello child"

Mei shifted her feet in embarrassment, but quickly remembered her manners and waved. "Hello sir..."

The Tortoises smile remained firmly on his old face, something Mei found a little unsettling, "Are you alone dear?"  
Mei faltered before nodding slowly, her mother had always told her not to talk to strange men but the old tortoise seemed harmless and for some reason she felt she could trust him."My village is gone and I don't know what to do."  
The elder Tortoise's gentle smile changed to a knowing one "Hmm, I see" He said calmly turning her softly with his staff "You should go in here.."  
Mei looked at the building that she had somehow failed to notice before..."What is it?"

"A place that will give you a home and something more.."  
Mei looked at the tortoise blankly "What."  
The elder shook his head lightly "Other children live here, I'm sure they would love another playmate.."  
"Really?" The tiger cub's eyes widened in excitement and allowed herself to be pushed through the open door, when something came to her "Wait! what's your name sir?"  
"You'll find out soon dear."

Mei shrugged and quickly forgot the strange tortoise at the sight of a room full of children  
"Wanna play!"

A/N. Well you know what happens next..

Hmm, I wonder why Oogway seems to appear around times like this...

Eh, I hope you like this one..


End file.
